THE SPANISH SERIES SEVILLE THE SPANISH SERIES Edited by ALBERT F. CALVERT MURILLO SPANISH ARMS AND ARMOUR THE ESCORIAL CORDOVA SEVILLE THE PRADO _In Preparation_ GOYA GRANADA AND ALHAMBRA VELAZQUEZ TOLEDO ROYAL PALACES OF SPAIN MADRID LEON, BURGOS AND SALAMANCA VALLADOLID, OVIEDO, SEGOVIA, ZAMORA, AVILA & ZARAGOZA SEVILLE AN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF “THE PEARL OF ANDALUSIA” BY ALBERT F. CALVERT WITH 300 ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMVII TURNBULL AND SPEARS. PRINTERS, EDINBURGH PREFACE There is a charm and compelling fascination about Seville which produces in the traveller visiting the city for the first time a sensation of physical ecstasy. The spell of the Pearl of Andalusia is instant and enduring; I have not met a man or woman proof against its witchery. George Borrow shed tears of rapture as he beheld Seville from the Cristina Promenade, and “listened to the thrush and the nightingale piping forth their melodious songs in the woods, and inhaled the breeze laden with the perfume of its thousand orange gardens.” The Moors left their beloved capital at the height of its prosperity, in the full flower of its beauty; change has not affected its material importance, and time has not staled its infinite variety. A Christian Cathedral now stands on the foundation of the great mosque of Abu Yakub Yusuf; but the Moorish Giralda, the most expressive monument of the Mohammedan occupation, still beckons the distant traveller onwards to the promised land; the Alcazar breathes the spirit of its Oriental masters; and the shimmering Torre del Oro still reflects the light of the setting sun upon the broad bosom of the rose-coloured river.